


Light the Path

by axumun



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Music Video, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:50:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axumun/pseuds/axumun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He'd rather lose his mind than have it taken from him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light the Path

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the video for 'Never Close Our Eyes'. This was meant to be a long and in-depth work about Adam's stay in the video's institution, but for now my brain is only interested in what lead to his capture.

This had been his biggest fear all along: running out. 

Now that Adam was sitting down, pausing to catch his breath in the midst of _go!go!go!_ , he could berate himself for thinking he could make it like this.

When it happened, he'd thrown a couple of comfy outfits and little snack bags into a backpack and ran like hell. With Brad, of course. But even _he_ was gone now. He'd slipped into the shadows, and sometimes Adam still expected to see him when he opened his eyes in the morning. 

Sometimes he could fool himself into thinking he was waking up in their bed, rather than concrete under a parasol. Sometimes he whispered sweet nothings before sleep took him, pretending they reached someone's ears.

He'd awakened one morning, colder than usual. Brad's jacket was stretched over his front like a blanket. He'd panicked. Of course, like a bad horror film, his love was gone.

Adam had searched for three days, refusng to eat because of the worry pooling in his gut, making it impossible to keep anything down. He turned every street corner, perused every building - even businesses with signs in the windows restricting service to gays.

On the third day, the unthinkable-yet-inevitable truth had smacked him on the jaw: Brad had been found.

Taken.

Right now he was probably sitting in a starched white cell with only a Dixie cup of pills for company, eyes sunken, staring blankly ahead.

Thinking about it had made Adam vomit what little was left in his stomach. Now there was only him. Him, and a bag of dirty clothes.

He didn't have any cash, but he had his credit card. There was plenty of money on it: enough to go toward what would have been rent, if he hadn't been kicked onto the street for living with a man. But he was wanted now. They both were. If he made any transactions...He'd be tracked. Knocked out. They'd take his mind.

He'd rather lose his mind than have it taken from him.

Adam waited much longer than was comfortable before the hunger and worry eating away at his insides made his decision for him.

He walked into a little gas station at the end of the street. The cashier was a perky twenty-something with extensions in her hair. She smiled at him. 

Adam huffed out a sigh. She looked like she'd be cool, like she might not say anything. Like she would understand.

_Maybe she's like me._

Adam's fingers were shaking with weakness and anxiety. He grabbed some energy bars and some trail mix. If this worked, he could imagine himself living like this for a while, buying enough to live on as he figured out where he could go, what he could do.

He dumped an armful of snacks onto the counter and steadily handed over his card. The woman was still smiling brightly, even flirtatiously. That was interesting. Adam imagined he must've looked like hell, after spending all this time wasting away in dark alleys.

When she swiped the card, her smile faded. Adam's heart began to sink, then he felt it stop completely, every slow beat thundering in his ears as he waited for a response.

But then she was reaching for the phone.

Whispering for security.

Stomping Adam's last ember of hope into the dirt and dancing on its grave.

"Sorry," she murmured to him, like it was no big deal that she was sending Adam away to be reconditioned, re-fucking- _programmed_ , whatever they did. "I gotta do my job. Wish I could help you."

♠

_"They can't do this," Brad whispered, his palms cradling his forehead. "We can't do this. We were gonna change things. Now they'll make us...like them."_

_Adam knew what that meant. Them. He and Brad would be locked away, cold fingers reaching into their minds and shutting them tightly, absorbing the light in their eyes. Little blue capsules would keep them from fighting back, like they were born to._

_"I know," Adam returned, melting into the couch. It might've been the last time he ever sat there._

_Achingly slow minutes inched by, as if injured. Then Adam gasped, breaking the veil of silence and looming despair._

_"What?" Brad breathed, eyes wide, shimmering with the threat of tears._

_Adam's smile spread slowly, his eyes crinkling at the corners. He stood up and offered his hand to Brad, who brushed his knuckles with trembling fingertips._

_"Will you run away with me?"_

♠


End file.
